Episode Transcript
Kate (00:01)
Well, hi, Johira, welcome back.
Dr. Johayra Bouza (00:04)
Hi Kate, how are you?
Kate (00:06)
Good, good. It's good to see you today. I am super excited to talk about this topic. Our best practices to support infant development. This is going to be really fun. I just, you know, babies. What else is there to say? Right, right. So, okay. So, you know, give us the scoop really. How do you connect with this topic? Why is this?
Dr. Johayra Bouza (00:08)
Good to see you as well.
They're just wonderful little beings.
Kate (00:35)
really the importance of infants and their development. Why does it speak to you in your heart?
Dr. Johayra Bouza (00:41)
Yes. So honestly, when I started off my career, I was really interested in preschoolers and toddlers. And during graduate school, I had this fantastic opportunity to work with a team at the University of Miami. And we were working to develop a coaching model to support the educators and families of both infants and toddlers. And as I was developing materials for it and resources, I had an opportunity to collaborate with experts in infant development.
Kate (01:01)
wow.
Dr. Johayra Bouza (01:11)
And I realized that there's so much that we don't know and that us common people don't really understand about the effective strategies there are. I mean, some other things that I learned throughout that project that was like, I have been working with infants for a couple of years now and this is new information for me. I can only imagine a new parent or a new educator who they don't have this information. And so...
Kate (01:38)
Mm -hmm.
Dr. Johayra Bouza (01:39)
I really became part of my mission to inform people about infant development and some of these great strategies that work for them, especially because sometimes in our society, I think that educators or maybe stay at home moms that are staying with their infants are regarded as babysitters. And that cannot be further from the truth. They're really doing the most important work, which is building the brains of our future generation. And so I think sometimes
Kate (01:56)
Mmm.
Right.
Dr. Johayra Bouza (02:08)
People are dismissive towards infant care when it is one of the most important and critical times of development.
Kate (02:15)
So even for you, was something that you came to really understand how critical this doing this well is for each person, right? Each developing child and like the world at large to get this right. So that's really cool. So tell us a little bit, like I can see how you're the researcher in you is like, I want to learn more.
I need to learn more about infants and why this matters, but tell us about yourself and your background in case people haven't been introduced to you and other podcasts of ours.
Dr. Johayra Bouza (02:51)
Sure. So I come from a family of Cuban -American immigrants and I was really fortunate to have amazing educators that supported my parents through understanding the academic system in the United States and providing a lot of resources for us. I was fortunate enough to be able to get into the University of Miami bachelor's program. My cap advisor, I remember my English teacher in high school,
they contributed so positively to making that happen and they went that extra mile. And so when I got to the University of Miami, I set out that I wanted to do a career that was similar to help educators and families similar to mine, because without them, I really wouldn't have had the opportunity to do it. I met Dr. Rebecca Shear and Dr. Darryl Greenfield, and they introduced me to this world where you can have a career helping
Kate (03:33)
Mm.
Dr. Johayra Bouza (03:48)
educators and families similar to mine. I went on to get my master's in statistics and then I got my PhD in developmental psychology and throughout that time it was a very applied program so I had a lot of experience working in Head Start and early Head Start and I just fell in love with early childhood early on during my high school years and then college and that brought me to where I am today.
Kate (04:14)
That's amazing. Education really, if you step back, it really is the most like one of the most pay it forward. I mean, there are other careers that are sort of a pay it forward type of thing, but we often hear that from educators, right? They've had really great educators in their growing up that have inspired them to grow and learn and then give back. so that's really inspiring to hear your story.
and how infants sort of fit into your own sort of learning too. So I'm really excited to dive into this topic with you. I agree with you. I think it's something we dismiss. So it's sort of like, yeah, everybody was a baby. Everybody takes care of babies. But we don't always step back to really look at how much infants learn.
in that first year. And we are learning more and more all the time about how much really is going on in there. you know, there's a lot of stuff to top, you know, a lot of stuff in this topic to cover today. So we want to cover the first year of children's lives, right? How we're going to talk about brain development, attachment, and maybe even dive into some myth busting and talk about, what are some common misconceptions about infants and
what we can do to start working to counter those. So help us learn any of the technical words we might run into today. What are some big topic sort of concepts that we need to have in our back of our brain?
Dr. Johayra Bouza (05:58)
Yeah, Kate, one word that comes to mind is responsiveness. We may have heard it before in other podcasts, but if this is the first time listeners are listening to this word, just want to be clear that that's referring to the ability of the caregiver, whether it's an educator or a family member parent, to recognize. So recognize what are the cues that are being given to us to interpret them and to respond in an appropriate way.
Kate (06:02)
Mm.
Okay.
Dr. Johayra Bouza (06:25)
in a way that's timely and sensitive towards that child. We're going to be talking about responsiveness when it comes to infants. So we're really talking about recognizing infant cues and responding appropriately to them. And as you can imagine, infants are nonverbal, right? So we got to pay a lot of attention to some of those cues because they communicate in very subtle ways in comparison to when I think of being responsive to a preschooler.
Kate (06:29)
Okay.
Right?
Mm -hmm.
Right.
Dr. Johayra Bouza (06:55)
or an older child, I'm like, it has its challenges, but at least they can talk, they can tell us things. So being responsiveness in this context is gonna push us a little bit further to sharpen our observer skills.
Kate (07:01)
Exactly.
Yeah. And those are some of the most challenging moments as an infant caregiver, right? Whether it's your own child or someone else's child that you're caring for. like, what do you want right now? You you try this, you try that, you're all of these things because they're only communicating with us in the best way they know how. And so let's talk about this sort of, what is it like in an everyday
Dr. Johayra Bouza (07:19)
you
Kate (07:35)
experiences with infants in the classroom and what we need to think about from that perspective.
Dr. Johayra Bouza (07:41)
Yes, so first I want to say that those of you who are working with infants in a classroom, working with multiple infants at once, you are superheroes. It is so challenging to even take care of one. I'm sure that first -time parents or even second or third -time parents can share that taking care of just one infant at home is already a lot of work. So thank you for the work that you're doing and we acknowledge that it is extremely challenging work.
Kate (07:47)
exactly.
Mm -hmm.
Mm
Dr. Johayra Bouza (08:11)
Before we get into like the actual strategies of every day, I do want to take a moment to talk about this importance of the first year of life.
Kate (08:14)
Yeah.
Right, right. We're in, we're caring for them during this very critical time. And we may have more than one that we're caring for at a time and they're all different and all that, but they're all kind of doing, right? They need to learn and grow and acquire the same sorts of skills, but tell us more about how that happens.
Dr. Johayra Bouza (08:39)
Yeah, so we know that babies experience their first year of life, their experiences that happen there, they set the stage for all their future learning, their behavior, and their health. And so that's why when I am working with educators or families and they say, you know, I want my child to be ready for school, or I want my child to be able to be a successful lawyer or an architect or doctor, that starts from the first day of life.
Kate (08:50)
Mm.
Right.
Dr. Johayra Bouza (09:08)
That starts at infancy. And we have so much research that documents that. It documents how these positive experiences that infants have, where we're being responsive, where we're paying attention to them, where we're using our language with them, they contribute to better education, mental health outcomes, and physical health all throughout their life. So if you want...
Kate (09:31)
Mm.
Dr. Johayra Bouza (09:33)
your child or the child in your classroom to be successful. The work that you're doing with them during infancy lays the foundation for everything else. The good thing is that a lot of these things come naturally to us. So we tend to look at a baby and just like you said when we started this podcast, like
Kate (09:43)
No pressure.
Right, right.
Dr. Johayra Bouza (09:54)
babies like we have this inherent joy for the most part when we see them and we smile at them and they smile back and so luckily for us a lot of it is inherent to just human nature.
Kate (10:00)
Right.
Yeah, people who choose to be, like you said, they're superheroes. They are in those infant care rooms for a reason because it is something they have a great passion for. they understand, so understanding how important this work is, is really, you know, it's not just sort of like, I do important work, but I do really important work. That's something to be proud of and to dedicate our life to is pretty, that's pretty remarkable. So tell us more about growth and yeah.
Dr. Johayra Bouza (10:34)
And yeah, and more information as to why it's so remarkable. During the first year of life, we know that it's the most rapid time of brain development outside the womb. So it's really marked by this formation of neural connections that are happening at an astonishing rate. They are getting all the information from their senses and it's going into their brain. It's laying this groundwork for
Kate (10:39)
Right.
Okay.
Dr. Johayra Bouza (11:03)
future emotion regulation, for example, how they're able to regulate their emotion, their cognitive abilities, their language abilities. And so we know that the experiences that they're having during infancy are significantly impacting that architecture of the brain. So when I think about infant teachers, I'm like, they're brain architects. They are exposing that child to the environment that's building all the...
Kate (11:05)
Mm -hmm.
Mm -hmm.
Dr. Johayra Bouza (11:33)
structures and all those neural connections that are happening in their brain.
Kate (11:34)
Right. Right. Children aren't growing in a vacuum. It's not possible for someone to have a healthy development, right, without that person there responding and supporting this growth. So they are that person that's helping build that brain structure. That's amazing.
Dr. Johayra Bouza (12:03)
And that person, just like you said, is kind of the foundation for everything. We talked about brain development, but another thing I wanna bring to light is attachment. We know that attachment is this deep emotional bond that connects the infant to their caregivers. And that is happening in infancy. This quality of attachment is so crucial to their social emotional development later on that we have found that it's had long -term impacts.
Kate (12:13)
Mmm.
Mm -hmm.
Dr. Johayra Bouza (12:32)
on children's psychological well -being and the quality of their future romantic relationships as adults. Yeah.
Kate (12:39)
What? Okay. So we were working in this role, right? this, this, the work that we do is because we want children to thrive and we want children to have the best life possible. And so thinking about, it's not just the brain and the sort of cognitive connections, but that relationship is what you're telling me. That relationship that I'm, that bond I'm building with this child is crucial and important.
too for their growth and their wellbeing. So, okay. Like the pressure isn't getting any less. So, okay. Okay, good. Do you, I have a question about attachment. Like, okay, so working in an infant room, when a child is joining the group, right? And often a parent who's
Dr. Johayra Bouza (13:16)
Don't worry, we're going to talk about some strategies.
Kate (13:36)
Like it's a young infant, we're talking six weeks or something like that, right? They can be very, very young. They are still forming their bond with their baby, right? And it can be really hard for them to turn over that care to another person. So sort of forming that bond with the family is important too. You have to build that trust. They're turning over this brand new life to you that they care about so much.
And they might worry that your bond as the caregiver at school is going to somehow subvert their bond as the parent, that original bond. can we offer, what can we say to educators about like, how can we encourage families that, right, I'm here to do this, right? How can we encourage that, that I'm not replacing them?
and things like that. So, yeah.
Dr. Johayra Bouza (14:36)
Absolutely. And the bond between a child and their parent is very special. We want to make sure to protect it. And as an infant caregiver, we of course want to have that good bond with the child as well, while still encouraging the bond with the parent. So one of the things that I always recommend to infant
Kate (14:48)
Mm -hmm.
Dr. Johayra Bouza (14:56)
educators is to make sure to bring the families into the classroom, bring pictures, bring things that they from their culture that they special toys that they might have, even some special foods, of course, you making sure that it's following all the rules of the hygienic rules of the childcare, but bringing them into the classroom. And we know that infants can build multiple attachments. So that same
Kate (14:59)
Mm.
No.
Right.
Dr. Johayra Bouza (15:24)
kind of fear that maybe families go into a child care setting with about this child building this attachment with someone else, know that your child is also building an attachment with grandma. They're also building an attachment with their aunt or with their godfather. And so we know that children aren't capable of building attachment with multiple people. We know that when those attachments, the more positive they are, the better it is for that child.
Kate (15:35)
Mmm.
Dr. Johayra Bouza (15:51)
And we also recognize that we want to make sure that as parents, we are continuously still spending a significant amount of time and quality time with our infants. So also with older children, right? Not only our infants, but we of course want to make sure that we're still doing that. And just because a child is in childcare, doesn't mean that you're not doing those things, right? And if you have other responsibilities like work or different things we have to do.
Kate (16:05)
Right. Of course. Yeah.
Ready?
Dr. Johayra Bouza (16:19)
And as long as we're leaving our child in good hands with an educator that's gonna be having this responsive care towards our infant, that infant is gonna be able to build those relationships simultaneously.
Kate (16:32)
Yeah, yeah, the better the all of those bonds are, the more supportive of an environment this child's growing up in. So that's great. Sort of like we can encourage parents that it's OK, right? We get it. It's you can feel guilty about not being able to be the only one caring for your child. But it's it's going to build their you know, it's going to build them emotionally, cognitively to have.
variety of people to connect with in their life. that's awesome. Right.
Dr. Johayra Bouza (17:02)
And the quality, right? Making sure that the care that you choose is these amazing superhero infant educators that are really responsive and caring. So you want to make sure that you as a parent build a relationship with that educator so you can feel comfortable and safe. Your child is going to pick that up from you if you are feeling very hesitant to leave them with this person. you can look at the quality of child care. could build a relationship with the educator.
Kate (17:09)
Yeah.
Yeah.
Dr. Johayra Bouza (17:30)
You can come in the first couple of times, spend a couple of hours with the infant in the environment and help that transition go smoother for you and also for the baby.
Kate (17:39)
Okay, so as an educator, I want to make sure that I'm providing that all of those things that you're talking about. What are some ways that I should be creating this kind of environment, providing this support for children during this important time?
Dr. Johayra Bouza (17:55)
Yes, so welcoming families is the first step, right? We want to make sure that they are welcomed into our classroom, that they feel connected with us as educators. Maybe that's telling them a little bit about why you do the work you do or what's important for you as an educator as you're supporting their child. Also making sure that you have very open lines of communication with the infant parent. So whether they're sharing, you know, how the child slept that night.
Kate (18:10)
Mmm.
Mmm.
Dr. Johayra Bouza (18:23)
What did the child eat? Have they noticed that they're having a hard time with something? Or are they really excited about playing with a specific toy or a favorite song that they might have? And you want to bring that into the classroom as an educator. And then the next thing we want to do is observe the infant. Get to know them. Understand what is it that they like? What is it that they're trying to communicate? What is their behavior like? Is this a baby that is being dropped off?
Kate (18:42)
Hmm.
Dr. Johayra Bouza (18:52)
and is reaching for you already and ready to go to meet a new person? Or is this a baby that is having a hard time with that transition and crying and having challenges? And then as you make these observations, you can make decisions on how you can be responsive to that child. So let's suppose that I have little baby Emily. Emily is one of those little babies who's having a really hard time during drop -off time.
and she's crying hysterically, gripping on to mom, not letting her go. Mom is crying too. And so we're all having a challenging time. Absolutely. And so that is going to be the first thing is that we have to recognize from an educator's perspective that that is challenging. And we have to recognize what do we have to do for ourselves to be able to cope with that moment? Maybe I need to take a deep breath. Maybe I need to have a little mini Snickers in my pocket.
Kate (19:23)
Yeah.
Yeah. Right.
True story. Yes, it happens. Yes.
Dr. Johayra Bouza (19:50)
I take out and eat provides me some comfort in that moment. You know, maybe I have my cup of coffee in my travel mug that I take a little sip from and get ready for this moment. And when I start to get ready for this moment, I can think about, okay, I saw baby Emily yesterday. She was really interested in throwing this small red ball in the classroom. She was putting it in her mouth and she was throwing it. And so
Kate (20:15)
you
Dr. Johayra Bouza (20:19)
Right before Emily comes in, I'm gonna have that red ball with me. Since I observed her, now I can be responsive using a material. When she gets there and she's crying, I wanna make sure that I validate her feelings. I wanna say, it's so hard to leave mom. I'm an adult and it's so hard for me to leave my mom sometimes. And we wanna make sure to rock her, to soothe her.
Kate (20:27)
Mm -hmm
Right.
Dr. Johayra Bouza (20:44)
want to make sure not to her from mom's hands, right? We want that transition to be something smooth and that little red ball can help us smoothen that transition. So I bring out the red ball and I say, come on, do you want to see it? Come with me, come with teacher Johanna. We're going to have such a good time today. Let's wave back bye to our mommies. I know that sometimes that part of waving back to mom.
The educators are like, no, we've already distracted the baby with that right ball. That saying goodbye. And I know that it's hard. But I'll share with you that what I've noticed and what we do see documented in the research is that when we don't do that, when the parent just kind of leaves and kind of escapes from the child, that child ends up crying more later when they notice. Also, it can lead to anxiety.
Kate (21:14)
No, need to say goodbye.
It is.
Mm
disappears.
Exactly, exactly, exactly. Right. Yeah.
Dr. Johayra Bouza (21:41)
And so I've seen this before in classrooms a lot where babies are want to play by the door. They have this obsession with being by the door because they think people are going to escape them and they notice that they escape them through that outlet. So let's observe our infants. Let's be responsive to them, thinking about different materials that we can be responsive with or with our words and our interactions like validating their feelings and playing with them. But let's make sure
Kate (21:55)
Right?
Dr. Johayra Bouza (22:11)
that we are supporting them and regulating their emotions as well. And part of that is saying bite them up. Part of that is understanding.
Kate (22:17)
Exactly. This is so helpful for infant caregivers to understand that, and toddler too, right? Where children, especially pre -verbal situations, right? Where they really can't express more than through their crying what's happening for them. To have their main attachment person disappear is very, very disruptive to, you know, their
emotions to, you know, putting them in a place of not being ready to welcome any other learning that might happen that day. They're really concerned mostly about where did, how did this happen? They just went away. So yeah, that's so critical and so helpful for you to explain that to educators so they can support healthy separations because having anxiety during separation time is, is a normal part of,
showing that you have a good bond, right? And so it's not an unusual thing for children who have well established bonds to be upset at losing that connection and transferring it to you is a challenging thing. So that's excellent advice. What else? Yeah.
Dr. Johayra Bouza (23:33)
And Kate, I just want to relate it to our experiences being adults too. Because when we have a family member that's coming to visit us, maybe your grandma is coming for a little while, imagine if you woke up the next day and this person had disappeared from your house.
Kate (23:36)
Yeah.
Yeah.
Dr. Johayra Bouza (23:51)
would disrupt you as an adult emotionally. And I know I've experienced this many times and I've seen people at the airport all the time when we're doing our drop off and you know they're leaving again for like another three, four months. We're not going to see them again until the next holiday. And we see that there are tears involved of adults where we're saying, man, I have to say bye to my mom now or my grandmother. But you're having a healthy separation there. You know it's coming. You are
Kate (24:03)
Right.
Right. Right.
Dr. Johayra Bouza (24:18)
you know, saying bye to them. And yes, you might get emotional and they might get emotional, but that's a totally different feeling than them just disappearing from your house and you're not knowing where they went. So if it's challenging for us as adults to, you know, say goodbye to a family member we really esteem at an airport when we know it's coming, when we are used to these separations, when we know we're going to see them again, which that's something that infants don't Yes.
Kate (24:27)
Right, right.
Right.
Exactly. They don't understand that yet. Right. They're only learning that mommy or daddy or grandma or whoever drops me off comes back. Right. So they're learning that. our role in the classroom is to help them understand that I'm a safe place. I'm providing the safe place for you to be and they'll be back. so,
Dr. Johayra Bouza (25:06)
Yeah, and I want to share with you that it's a cognitive thing because it's when you think about object permanence, for example, like knowing that objects continue to exist, even if you don't see them. We all know that when we play with a young infant and we go peekaboo, they get really excited. That's because they thought you disappeared when you were already in your eyes. So you are doing something amazing. You're an object that's staying permanently there, even though they
Kate (25:20)
Right. They're like, there you are. Yeah.
Right. Yeah.
Dr. Johayra Bouza (25:35)
couldn't see you. And so as you guys notice, as infants start to get older, peekaboo kind of gets old. I know you're there. You just covered your eyes. I know you're there. But that's because you're starting to learn that even though they're not seeing something, it's staying permanent. Imagine how they feel when their parent leaves the classroom. They're like, I don't know if this person is distant.
Kate (25:36)
Yeah.
Yeah, they just look, yeah, yeah, I know you're there.
Right.
Yeah, even exists exactly.
Dr. Johayra Bouza (26:01)
they even exist. So I haven't developed those skills yet. So it's totally normal for them to cry and have that anxiety that that is normal for it to happen and us making sure to scaffold them to understand those things and provide a safe and responsive place is going to make that transition go better.
Kate (26:11)
Yeah.
Yeah. Yeah. So while we're spending all day with them, what are some important things that we should be doing with them while we're helping them grow?
Dr. Johayra Bouza (26:30)
Yes. One thing I recommend is using words around them. Talking. It doesn't matter what you're saying. You can say, I'm picking up this water bottle or I am looking at this phone to see the time exposing them to words. And that's the examples I just gave. That's just describing what I'm doing, right? Just describing what I'm doing out loud is supporting their brain development because you're getting input.
Kate (26:55)
Mm -hmm.
Dr. Johayra Bouza (27:00)
from language. one thing that I see often in infant classrooms, I'm so happy to see it and I want to continue to support it, is singing. Yes. Singing, because it is exposing children to words. And in addition, it's usually in a melody kind of format. And we know that that melody and that rhythmic kind of patterns in our language, that soothes infants. So it gets their attention and it soothes them.
Kate (27:09)
okay, tell us why.
Mm -hmm.
Dr. Johayra Bouza (27:29)
What's really cool is that if you've done that connection with families, we know that even during prenatal development, so when they're in mommy's tummy, they are able to recognize some of those rhythmic patterns of those songs. So if by any chance you know that, you know, mom used to sing to the belly or maybe in the first couple of weeks of development, like, you're my sunshine, right? You're my sunshine, my only sunshine. And you sing that song.
Kate (27:53)
Right. Right.
Dr. Johayra Bouza (27:59)
Not only are you exposing that child to language, you're exposing them to those melodies that helps them calm them down. And if you know that song they were exposed to from their families or in early development, then you're also giving them an added sense of comfort. So singing, using words, and I know this one might be tougher for some of our infant caregivers. I find that it's still tough for me as well, is asking infants questions.
Kate (28:15)
Mm -hmm.
yeah, because they don't really respond. It's not quite the same as having an adult kind of conversation. Yeah.
Dr. Johayra Bouza (28:33)
It's okay.
Yeah, and so they don't respond in a verbal way, but sometimes they respond in nonverbal ways. That's why some of our observation skills come in, right? So maybe I'm looking at a book and it has a tiger and I ask the infant, what animal do you think this is? And the infant is like four months old. They're like, what?
Kate (28:43)
right.
Mm -hmm.
Mm -hmm.
Yeah.
Dr. Johayra Bouza (29:05)
And they just maybe look at the tiger and maybe tap it or maybe they get distracted and look somewhere else. There is some type of response there. There are responding non -verbally. And what's interesting is that we recently, as researchers, we did a study that was looking at an fMRI machine with infants as young as three to four months. And what they found is that at that age, right, at that age, they're definitely not using any words.
Kate (29:08)
That's it. Yeah.
Mm -hmm.
Wow, okay.
No, yeah.
Dr. Johayra Bouza (29:36)
But when they saw that in the fMRI machine, the parts of their brain that light up when they hear a question are the same parts of the brain that light up for an adult.
Kate (29:50)
That's amazing. That's amazing. So you are really building that brain architecture. You are just getting that going. that's amazing. Yeah.
Dr. Johayra Bouza (30:00)
Yes, and so they're able to interpret the difference between a question and a statement even though they can't respond to it yet. And the more we expose them to asking those questions and pausing and kind of seeing how they respond, the better we are equipping them to be able to answer questions in the future.
Kate (30:05)
Yeah. Yeah.
